A Road Either to Safety Or to Ruin
by Salmon
Summary: Perhaps Pang Tong was not the only one who saw through Zhuge Liang's false mourning...


**A Road Either to Safety Or to Ruin  
A Romance of the Three Kingdoms Fanfic**

_210 AD Wu Territory, near the Shu Border_

Rain was falling in sheets as the carriage pulled up to the small inn. For a moment it sat there quietly, as if it's occupants were uncertain whether to brave the storm's fury for sturdier shelter. Then the door opened and a young, scholarly man stepped lightly down. He didn't blink or flinch as the rain pelted him - only eyed the inn with a frown before turning back. "If he is not here, we should turn back. He spoke in a soft tone to the other occupant of the carriage.

"No. We'll stay here for the night, and search further tomorrow." A voice, light and feminine - yet tinged with darker emotion - replied.

"Lady, we are within the shadow of the Shu Border now. We will most definately reach their territory should we pursue farther."

"Shu is allied with Wu, is it not? None shall bar our crossing."

"You'd pursue him into Jing?"

"I'd pursue him to Shu's capital, if necessary."

"...very well. But let me look inside first."

"I will be waiting outback of the inn."

The youth nodded, closing the doors and heading inside. He did not look back once as the carriage rumbled away.

Inside the inn it was warm, though the rain outside made it damp and humid. The scholar was ushered to a seat, and was soon sipping from a cup of warm wine as he studied the occupants of the room as though searching for someone. He sighed and turned away - apparently not finding them. Abandoning his wine he went to arrange for rooms for the night. As he finished paying, however, words from the kitchen drifted in through it's partialy open door.

"Master Zhuge is an important guest. If you spill even a drop of that food you will be severely punished."

His head jerked briefly in that direction, before he headed slowly for the stairs. When a serving girl appeared - carrying a tray - he let her pass him, but followed her as she headed for her destination.

Upstairs, away from the rowdiness of the main room, were private rooms for eating and sleeping. The scholarly youth followed the serving girl to the proper wing, then made a sudden move to pass her. The girl gasped as he bumped into her shoulder, and the tray tipped forawrd - spilling it's contents onto the floor.

The girl gave a cry, dropping to her knees to study the ruined food and broken bowls.

"I'm so terribly sorry." The scholar, having turned back, knelt next to her.

"Oh, no, what am I to do?" The girl moaned, attempting to piece back together one of the bowls.

"Please, there's no need to cry. Here, take this." He offered her a coin, but the girl only shook her head.

"This food was for Master Zhuge - the owner said I'd be severely punished if I lost any of it!"

"Master Zhuge? Zhuge Kongming? What a coincedence! I'm a friend of his, and had hoped to invite him to dine with me before he left Jianye. Unfortunately, I was too late and he had left. Now, I'll tell you what we'll do. Go down to the owner and tell him another customer saw the tray and asked for the same thing. Bring it to my room, and Master Kongming and I can share it. When it's time to take his dishes, take those. And when it's time to take mine, I'll send some coins with the broken dishes, and you can tell him I apologize for accidently breaking them. Then no one will be any the wiser."

"Truly?" The serving girl looked hopeful.

"Of course. This is my fault anway. I'll be in the Peaceful Jade room. Where is Master Kongming?"

"In the Bright Moon room. At the very end of this hall on the right."

"Ah, good. I'll clean this up. Go ahead and run along."

"Thank-you, sir." The serving girl bowed, wiping away her tears before hurrying back toward the kitchen.

Hurridly assembling the destroyed meal on the tray, the scholar headed away from the main rooms toward a nearby side hall...

* * *

Zhuge Liang was seated in his room, reading from a scroll. The lantern light made up for the lack of sunlight, and he was at ease - his white feather fan resting on his lap. The fact that his meal was late did not bother him overly much, and the scroll was interesting way to pass the time.

Outside the closed shutters of his windows, the rain continued to fall, and the ominous rumble of thunder began to be heard. Engrossed in the scroll as he was he payed little attention, until the door creaked open.

"Master, I have your meal." A feminine voice spoke, drawing him out of the writing that had engrossed him. The sound of the door closing was followed by a terrible crash, and a cry from the girl who'd brought the tray.

Jerking away from the scroll, he hastily stood up as he took in the situation. The serving girl was mostly turned away from him, kneeling next to the shattered remains of what had been meant to be his meal. She seemed to be in tears over the accident, one hand covering part of her face.

He took a step forward, planning on reassuring her, but paused as something about the scene began to feel not quite right. The door was indeed closed - which was strange as she would have to have reopened it to leave. Though the food looked like it was his order, it looked mor jumbled than it should have been, and no liquid was amongst the ruins. The girl herself, however, seemed oddly damp. Her clothing showing spots of rain. On closer inspection, the mostly hidden face looked familiar and a moment later the identity of the girl clarified itself in his mind.

"It was an accident, Master. Please forgive me." She spoke again when he made no move to come closer.

"As of yet, you have done nothing that needs forgiven." He spoke calmly, bringing up his fan as he studied the kneeling girl.

"The owner threatened great harm if your food was ruined by anyone."

"Then I sincerely hope you have found a way to displace the blame from the serving girl who was entrusted with my food."

There was a pause of a few heartbeats, and the kneeling figure tensed. "W-Whatever do you mean, Master?"

"Surely you don't expect me to believe that the times in Wu are so hard as to require Lord Sun Quan to sell the wife of his beloved late advisor to the proprietor of an inn."

The heavy pounding of the rain on the inn's roof could be heard distinctly in the silence that followed his sentence. Slowly the girl rose to her feet, allowing the silence to continue for another long moment.

"Perhaps I should not have feigned tears, as your last view of me was no doubt my weeping at my husband's funeral only a few days past." Qiao Xiao stated, not turning to face him.

"Shutting the door was a mistake as well. A serving girl would shut it on her way out - not in."

"It matters little. It's suiting that you know my identity." Turning, Xiao brought up a sword to point at the Shu scholar. "It will be all the more pleasurable to stab my husband's sword through your heart with you knowing who I am."

The only outward sign Liang gave at her words was to begin to wave his fan serenely back and forth as he studied her position. "Why would you seek my death, Lady Qiao?"

The beauty of the southland laughed, and even though it was mocking it was still as lovely as the tones of the qin. "Come now, Kongming. Surely the genius of Shu can answer that question easily."

"If you think you are completing your husband's work, I must disillusion you. Your husband's task was the protection of Wu. My death at your hand will put your country in peril of attack from Shu - and therefore is against the mission he gave his life for."

Xiao's lips curved in a wry smile. "You truly think you can talk your way out of your execution? This has nothing to do with logic. This is revenge."

"Why seek vengeance on me? I had nothing to do with your husband's death."

"You dare speak such lies in my presence!" Xiao exclaimed, the edge of the sword lowering slightly as her eyes filled with fury. "You vile deceiver! It was your taunts that drove him to the grave!"

"I disagree. It was his own refusal to care for his wound that led to his demise. He should have put his health before his scheming. His loss is a heavy one for your lord."

"Do you want me to carve out your sly tongue before or after I slay you?" Xiao took a threatening step forward, before holding herself in check. "...I see now how you could have provoked fury, even in one as level-headed as my late husband. How easily you manipulate things in your favor. But you shall not gain an advantage by angering me. Only a more painful death."

Liang seemed unaffected by her threats, though his serene gaze moved occasionally from her face to the sword still pointed at him. "I bear no ill will toward you or your late husband. I came to Wu to offer incense to his departed spirit."

"You came to Wu to mock us for losing the one man you felt was a threat to your own plans." Xiao countered. "Your lament and tears were false. You delight in my husband's death."

"...I delight in no death. But I will not deny that his departure from this world is an ease to my mind where my lord's welfare is concerned." Liang admitted slowly.

"Finally some truth. Is there any other confession you care to make before I kill you?" Xiao asked.

"As you are determined to see this through, I do not suppose there is any more to say."

"Your calmness is infuriating! Will you not even ask to be spared?"

"You have said my words will do me no good. So why should I ask for mercy?"

"And your lord, what of him? No concern for how he will fare without you?"

Liang smiled a secretive smile. "I think he will fare well enough."

Xiao scowled, her eyes narrowing. "How satisfied you sound - as though you know something I do not. You think he can hold Jing without your aid?"

"So you seek Jing as well?"

"My vengeance will not be complete until Jing is in Wu's hands, and you are buried in the ground."

"I see. So by killing me you accomplish both. My lord will attack Wu, giving your lord the right to conquer it."

"Why would your lord attack Wu? How can he blame Lord Sun for your death? I reported this sword missing several days past. Others were present - including Master Lu Su, and your brother. I wonder what the local legend will be. That my husband's spirit sought vengeance from beyond the grave, perhaps?"

"Is that the legacy you wish for people to remember your husband by? As a man who's heart was filled with vengeance?"

"Be silent!" The sword hissed through the air in a deadly arc, but the Shu Scholar stood still as it sliced the air in front of him without touching him. Tears began to glimmer in Xiao's eyes as she brought the sword back up to point at him. "Curse you! Curse you! I do not care! I will kill you! And we will take Jing!"

"I doubt your husband would wish you to bloody your hands for him. And by choosing Lu Su as successor, he chose peace with Shu."

"So I should let you go and march on Yizhou?"

"...What makes you say that?"

"Come now, you don't think I was married so long to Wu's top strategist and learned nothing of his work? Isn't that the real reason you wrote him to advise him against marching on Yong An? Because you need Ba Shu for your lord?"

"While your husband may have taken Yizhou given time, it would have left you open to an attack by Cao Cao. What I wrote your husband was true."

"While your troops at Jing will have the support of ours if we remain in alliance...you underestimate our lord's desire for Jing."

"No, but he will be persuaded into caution by Lu Su."

Xiao was quiet for a time, her eyes distant. "You think your lord can take Yizhou without you?"

"I am confident there will be another to advise him."

"Then you are aware of something I am not. And will die satisfied of your lord's welfare and success..." For another long moment they faced eachother over the sword of Wu's fallen strategist. Then Xiao lowered it, closing her eyes in defeat. "Then vengeance cannot be mine this evening."

"So you will suffer me to live?"

"I will suffer you to exist." Xiao replied. "May you die steeped in failures." Sheathing the sword she headed for the door. "Go to the Peaceful Jade room in a few minutes. Your food will be there, and coins for the broken dishes. Should the serving girl ask after your friend from Jianye...tell her whatever you wish. The truth, even. Not that a soul will believe you."

With that she was gone.

* * *

The rain was heavier, the thunder closer, as she climbed into the carriage. The scholar watched her expression carefully.

"He yet lives." He spoke softly, almost cautiously, as the carriage started on it's way.

"Why should he die confident and reassured when my husband's heart was filled with doubt and concern?" Xiao responded, her voice still tinged with anger. After a moment of silence, she turned to him. "How did you know?"

"His star has not fallen."

Xiao nodded, accepting the explanation. "His time will come. When he dies it will be with his kingdom surrounded by hostile forces, having failed to complete his lord's mission. That will be true vengeance."

"Our lord's desire for Jing will override his gratitude for their assistance at Chi Bi in time." The scholar spoke slowly.

"Wu will align with Wei. I realized it when I spoke to him. Without my husband here to prevent it, it is inevitable."

"They will take Yizhou."

"...we must sacrifice the plum tree for the peach. Besides, none among our ranks has the skill and trust of our lord and men enough to prevent that."

"...we will take Jing. I swear it."

"Boyan, I will hold you to that promise." Xiao turned to look out the window at the storm.

"Come flood or fire, I will accomplish it." The future Prime Minister of Wu swore.

Outside the carriage the thunder crashed deafeningly, streaks of lightning shooting across the clouds. They had rounded the inn to return to the road they'd arrived on. The rains fell heavier, misting the ground, and before long the view of the carriage was lost to the storm.

**Salmon 2007**

* * *

Just to clarify a few things: This is based mostly on the novel. I know that historically the events surrounding Zhou Yu's death were very different. But I really felt, novelwise, that the fact nobody saw through Zhuge's mourning except Pang Tong a bit unbelievable. I chose his wife, partly because she is unused, and partly because she would have the right to seek revenge. While Lu Xun, being only a fellow officer, wouldn't really. But she needed someone to help her, and I thought Lu Xun was a good choice.

Some of the area/province names I used were what I could find. I apologize if they are wrong or misused. I just didn't want "Yizhou" repeated constantly. (I tried it, and though I had to clarify what they were discussing, it ended up ridiculous to read. Like - How many times can you say "Yizhou" in a conversation? 3...4...5...)

I hope you enjoyed this little one-shot. Please review!


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